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NOT THE ONION: MAN ARRESTED FOR PLAYING ‘DARTH VADER THEME’  
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Chris Williams
October 24, 2025
Above the Law
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_ I had to make sure this wasn't an Onion article when I read about
it. But here's the video you can see for yourself. _

,

 

It is easy to laud the importance of our Constitution when there is no
crisis. Constitutional advocacy really matters when our foundational
values are in tension with state interest and polarizing effect. While
I had to try my damnedest to stay awake during the dormant commerce
clause lectures 1L year, I didn’t have that problem with the protest
modules because it centered on what we could and couldn’t take for
granted during times of unrest. Given our country’s
history, that’s about 92% of the time
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And while Supreme Court cases can make for a go-to litmus test of what
flies at a given point in our history, most of what is actually
happening on the ground never makes it that far. That said, this small
case coming out of D.C. could be some history in the making. Axios
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coverage:

A D.C. resident who was briefly detained and handcuffed last month for
following a National Guard patrol while playing “The Imperial
March” from Star Wars on his phone has filed a lawsuit saying his
constitutional rights were violated. [link removed]

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 23, 2025
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Soon after the camouflaged, uniformed man whined to a blue-uniformed
man about the unwanted soundtrack, O’Hara was tightly handcuffed for
15-20 minutes.

The degree and arbitrariness of the punishment makes for quite a small
tyranny, but it is tyrannical nonetheless. Liberty is in danger the
easier it is to arrest citizens for what amounts to — at worst — a
constitutionally protected annoyance. O’Hara was obviously caught on
camera, but is it too far off to imagine the police arresting someone
without cause and justifying it by saying they were caught playing the
“Imperial March” or “F*ck The Police”? What’s the point of
the First and the Fourth if song selection is all that stands between
freedom and being hauled off in handcuffs?

This could be a great test case to see what, if anything, is left of
the First Amendment. Let’s see how far it goes.

Lawsuit: D.C. Man Detained For Playing “Star Wars” Song At
National Guard
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_CHRIS WILLIAMS BECAME A SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER AND ASSISTANT EDITOR FOR
ABOVE THE LAW IN JUNE 2021. PRIOR TO JOINING THE STAFF, HE MOONLIGHTED
AS A MINOR MEMELORD™ IN THE FACEBOOK GROUP LAW SCHOOL MEMES FOR
EDGY T14S .  HE ENDURED MISSOURI LONG ENOUGH TO GRADUATE FROM
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS SCHOOL OF LAW. HE IS A FORMER
BOATBUILDER WHO IS LEARNING TO SWIM, IS INTERESTED IN CRITICAL RACE
THEORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND HUMOR, AND HAS A LOVE FOR CYCLING THAT
OCCASIONALLY ANNOYS HIS PEERS. YOU CAN REACH HIM BY EMAIL
AT [email protected] 
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BY TWEET AT @WRITESFORRENT [[link removed]]._

_Above the Law takes a behind-the-scenes look at the world of law. The
site provides news and insights about the profession’s most colorful
personalities and powerful institutions, as well as original
commentary on breaking legal developments. Above the Law is published
by Breaking Media
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* First Amendment
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